When the starter’s gun sounded for the 34th annual Beijing International Marathon on Sunday, air pollution measured 20 times worse than what the World Health Organization considers safe to breathe. Anywhere else in the world, this would have been a scandal worthy of collective soul-searching. In Beijing, many of the roughly 26,000 runners donned anti-pollution face masks and gamely dashed through the hazy streets.
The race was hardly the first major sporting event to be marred by unbreathable air in China. A week before the marathon, Argentinian football superstar Lionel Messi was photographed struggling through a pollution-choked practice in Beijing before a friendly between the Brazilian and Argentinian national teams. In April 2013, the Ladies Professional Golf Association drew a blast of criticism for choosing to play the final of its premier Chinese event amid heavy pollution, claiming it was “fog.”
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